Entre los miles de africanos de origen asiático que se vieron obligados a abandonar Kenia cuando este país proclamó su independencia, se encontraba la familia del autor de esta novela, que ha convertido su experiencia personal en el tema fundamental de su narrativa.Desde su exilio canadiense, sin más compañía que sus recuerdos, Vikram Lall rememora con emoción e intensidad su vida anterior, dejando en manos del lector el juzgar si ésta ha sido la de un hombre que tan sólo se adaptó a la única realidad posible o la de un ser condenable que se aprovechó de las circunstancias para beneficio personal.

I've had this book sitting on my bookshelf for almost 10 years so I decided now was the time to read it. I wasn't sure what I was expecting although I knew it had won the Giller Prize in 2003. That doesn't necessarily mean I will enjoy it (there have been a few duds such as the winner in 2019) but the chances are pretty good that I will. This book is certainly not in the dud category.

Vikram Lall was a third generation Indo-Kenyan. His grandfather had come from India to build the railroad. Then his father was born in Kenya and found a wife back in India before the country was transformed by independence from Britain. Vikram and his sister Deepa were raised in a small town where their parents were shopkeepers. Kenya was, at that time, experiencing its own fight for freedom from Britain. Most notably the Mau Mau carried out surprise attacks on white farmers trying to drive them from the land. Vikram, Deepa and their black friend Njoroge played with a white brother and sister when their mother brought them to town so she could shop. About a year after they met William and Annie Bruce, the Bruces were slaughtered by the Mau Mau. Some time later the police came to his father and told him that his gun, which had gone missing, had been used to commit the murders. The police arrested the gardener, Njoroge's grandfather, for the theft of the gun and conspiring with the rebels. Vikram believed that, in fact, his uncle had taken the gun and passed it on to the rebels. As a result of this turn of events the Lalls moved to Nairobi and Njoroge disappeared from their life. Then when Vikram, Deepa and Njoroge have reached adulthood they manage to reconnect. Deepa and Njoroge turn their childhood feelings into love for each other but Kenya and the Lalls are not ready for a bi-racial marriage. Njoroge is a force in the new black political establishment and he helps Vikram get a job with the government. Vikram will never be fully accepted by the black powers-that-be but he performs a useful service funnelling foreign money into the hands of some ministers so he has some clout. This becomes useful when most Asians are expelled from Kenya but the Lalls remain.

We follow the history of Kenya (and Africa as a whole) through the lives of the Lalls, especially Vikram, and it is fascinating. Plus the writing is wonderful. Vassanji captures the surroundings for his characters with words the way a photographer does with a camera. Hard to believe that this is a man who studied to be a nuclear physicist. ( )

There is something to be said about a book that succeeds in being emotionally removed and yet heartbreaking at the same time. Such is the case with this book. You never really get a sense of feeling from the book's protagonist -- a man who introduces himself as having 'the distinction of having been numbered one of Africa's most corrupt men, a cheat of monstrous and reptilian cunning.' Despite this, as his story progresses you find that you relate to him more and more.

It is at the same time a detached and vivid tale that deserves attention from many angles. It simultaneously conquers many issues, from the complexity of race relations to the unending and all-too-human quest for belonging and acceptance. For all its complexity and dispassionate prose, it is easily described in one word: 'mesmerizing'. ( )

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by M. G. Vassanji is the story of an Asian man who sees himself as an in-between, being neither white nor black, in colonial and post-colonial Kenya. Although he doesn’t feel it, he is a 3rd generation African. His grandfather came to Africa from India to work the railroad and stayed, putting down roots in the large Asian community. As the book opens, Vikram is living in exile in Canada and as his story unfolds we are taken back to Kenya and the Mau Mau insurgency of 1952 – 1960.

Again he finds himself in the middle of his two friends, Bill the white son of a British landowner and Njoroge, the black grandson of the Kikuyu gardener. These boys, along with Vikram’s sister, Deepa and Bill’s sister, Ann play together and become close friends, although the political situation is destined to tear them apart. Vikram’s story covers the changing Kenya as it emerges from Colonial rule, to the early hopeful days of independence to the dark dangers and corruption that evolved in later decades.

Vikram who identifies himself as “one of Africa’s most corrupt men”, becomes adept at survival, both political and personal, again as a middle man, he becomes a fixer, taking bribes and moving the money for the new black, corrupt ruling class. Eventually he is used as a scrapegoat in an international scandal and forced to leave Kenya.

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall was a fascinating multi-layered story. Although a powerful tale, I felt the story bogged down at times in the massive amount of detail provided. These details, although accurate and well researched cause the book to be overlong and slow. But ultimately this is a well written, deeply personal story from an author who grew up in Kenya and is well able to immerse the reader into the complexities of African history. ( )

One of the best novels on Kenyan independence and written from an Indian perspective. ( )